Although wireless networks are becoming more prevalent, many home networks today still rely upon wired networking solutions. But existing wired networks and network infrastructures typically limit their effective operability to a relatively small area, such as a single room in a house. For example, a network using IEEE 1394 connections (also called FireWire) is generally limited to cable lengths of about fifteen feet, which precludes it from easily covering an entire house. Even some wireless solutions may be limited in range if the house is large enough or the coverage of the wireless personal area network or local area network is small enough. This might allow coverage in some, but not all of the rooms in a house.
Furthermore, even when networks that have a longer range are used, the cost or inconvenience of a wired infrastructure can serve to limit the effective coverage of the network. For example, an Ethernet or category 5 (CAT-5) connection has a maximum range between devices of around 300 feet, but the cable still has to be run, and that may be impractical for a number of reasons. Running lengths of cable to every room that requires a connection can be unsightly and inconvenient if the cables are out in the open, and can be expensive if the cables are hidden in walls and ceilings. And while some newer construction is being made that includes an Ethernet or CAT-5 infrastructure, that's still the exception rather than the rule.
As a result, absent a wide-range wireless network, home network users conventionally have separate networks in individual locations throughout a house. A living room might have a stereo connected together with some speakers; a family room might have a television connected with a cable set-top box, a digital video disc (DVD) player, and a digital video recorder (DVR); a bedroom might have another cable set-top box, a television, and a DVD player connected together, and an office might have a computer connected to a printer and cable modem. But each of these networks would be completely separate from the others, and there would be no communication between different local networks (i.e., between different rooms). In other words, the computer in the office could not use the speakers in the living room to play music; the television in the bedroom could not access the DVR in the family room to play recorded content; and each television in the house would have to be connected to its own cable set-top box.
Furthermore, existing cabling solutions (e.g., FireWire, CAT-5, and Ethernet) use point-to-point connections, not bus connections. This means that not only is it necessary to provide long cable runs, it is also necessary to provide the right cable runs. And if a user's needs change, the existing cable connections might not be adequate. Thus, even an integral connection built into a new home might prove inadequate for future needs, again raising the problems of unsightly and inconvenient external runs, or expensive additional internal runs
It would therefore be desirable to provide a network that can connect most, if not all of the devices in a house so that all of those devices could talk to each other. It would also be desirable if the network connection had the qualities of a bus, at least in part, so that only a single wired connection between different rooms in the house would be required.